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Not too long ago it was pretty easy for indie, foreign, or streamed films to fly under the Oscar radar, but this past year has been, simply put, a weird one, causing major shifts in movie theater releases and a heavy focus on accessible movie streaming. And although this year hasn’t been the kindest, it’s nice to know that movies that historically could have been ignored by the Academy have rightfully earned their place as nominees for the 2021 Oscars.

To celebrate an odd but fruitful year of film, we’re pairing select Oscars nominees with some book recommendations. If you’ve already buzzed through these movies and are itching for something similar to hold you off until the winners are announced on April 25th, give one of these paired books a go!

Lou Ottens, the inventor who blessed us with the cassette tape, died earlier this month at the age of 94. Thanks to his creation, people around the world have collected their favorite songs as a gift for friends and lovers. A mixtape was one of the coolest things you could give or receive in the 1980s and ‘90s. Though the technology has given way to the online streaming playlist, the idea remains the same: collect your favorite tunes around a theme and share them with people you love.

Thanks to its billing as “Toy Story meets Stranger Things,” my middle grade novel Spark and the League of Ursus (and its sequel) practically demands its own mixtape. I share it with you here.

Image by skalekar1992 from Pixabay

“They f**k you up, your mum and dad.  

They may not mean to, but they do…”

Philip Larkin’s "This Be The Verse" gets straight to the point. Parents, no matter how hard they try, are only human and mess up sometimes when it comes to raising children. But Larkin’s pithy poem isn’t just about laying blame, but understanding. Parents aren’t perfect, and Forgive Mom and Dad Day encourages kids to see the ones who raised them not just as parents, but as people.

So this March, which literary parents might deserve a little forgiveness? Are these moms and dads actually sympathetic people, struggling to do their best and failing despite good intentions? Or perhaps, have these book-based parents gone so fictionally far that there’s just no forgiveness possible?

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

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There are a ton of great characters out there in the literary and popular culture world. Some of them have become so iconic that they are almost a part of the social zeitgeist. There are so few people who don’t know Holden Caulfield or Victor Frankenstein, those characters who just steal the show, but what about the side characters? The ones who hold up a story like scaffolding but are often overlooked? Well, Disney and Marvel have seen fit to give a pair of those characters, Sam Wilson a.k.a. The Falcon and James Buchanan “Bucky” Barns a.k.a. The Winter Soldier their own spin-off tv show. To celebrate the release of Falcon and The Winter Soldier on Disney+, we at Quirk wanted to take a look at some other pairs who could use their own spin-offs.

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It’s National Promposal Day today and while prom is looking a little different this year (okay, a lot different) there’s still room to get creative and flex your promposal skills. In honor of this fun and festive day, we’re reading some of our favorite prom-centric young adult novels. Let’s dance!

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We’re big fans of Oscar Isaac over here at Quirk HQ, so it’s only fitting that we celebrate him in the most joyful way we know how: by dream casting him in all of our favorite books. We already know that he’s a literary darling; just look at his work in Robin Hood, Annihilation, and the upcoming Dune adaptation. But what would an Oscar Isaac romcom be like? Or a horror movie? Grab a book and dive on in!